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I don’t know what to say…

Overall I tend to have a pretty positive view of our species, despite all of the horrible things that have been done by us. Then I come across stories like the one posted by PZ Myers today (1) that makes me really fucking hate humanity!

Like most cults, [the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints are] very protective of their own and hate apostates passionately. They must send a message to anyone who dares leave the church, as Isaac Wyler discovered. He found a kitten on his property: a kitten half-encased in concrete, which suffered for a little while before it died.

I know this isn’t even close in scale to some of the horrors committed in the past by humanity, but fuck! It just baffles me to see the horrors that some people will do just to make a point about their imaginary piece of shit sky fairy. I know I shouldn’t be surprised anymore, but the fact that is isn’t unexpected doesn’t make me any less angry. There is a video of the kitten as well. I haven’t watched it; I just can’t bring myself to do it.

Reading through the comments on a Huffington Post article on the subject (a site I normally steer clear of), it’s sad to see all of the “he/she is in a better place now” comments. I know that these people are just trying to deal with it the best way they know how, but this attitude is nothing but a distraction. It’s just a placation that ultimately says “evil is OK because my sky fairies ultimate justice will even things out in the end.” This behavior not OK! This unfortunate kitten is not in a better place. He/she is dead. That’s it. End of story. And the reason this kitten is dead is, more likely than not, because of religion. Stupid…fucking…religion.

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5 thoughts on “I don’t know what to say…”

Violence dresses up in a varitey of customs, some religious, so it can make us forget what it is that we dispise. Their religion failed to remove an evil from their lives. It didn’t cause it. And violence wants us to hate each other so its work continues through us. I hate violence and call it by name. Thank you for your posts.
Dennis

Violence has causes. There are many things which can cause people to be violent of course, but there is nonetheless a cause. Religion wasn’t the sole cause for this incident, but it most certainly was a cause. Your position of “religion failed to remove an evil…” simply assumes that Religion is intrinsically good, an assumption that I do not agree with. If you take religion out of this scenario, then that kitten would still be alive. That makes religion culpable, albeit not solely so.

I don’t think that religion is intrinsically anything really. More specifically referring to the Abrahamic family of religions (of which Mormonism is one of), I think that they are complex enough, ambiguous enough, and contradictory enough, that people can use it to justify acts of good and acts of evil alike, and both types of justifications would be correct according to the tenets of that religion (this ignores all of the shades of gray in between of course, but applies equally to those as well). That is one of the big problems I have with religions like these: they have good parts to them which lends them legitimacy even though they also justify actions like the one above.

Well said. People from a diverse set of backgrounds and characteristics can engage in barbaric behavior. Their differences aren’t the cause of the viloence. Yet, one of religions dangers is its powerful ability to create community. When that community bond is held together by stories that reward violence the religion becomes indistinguisable from the harm.